The New Girl
by shellfish
Summary: *~Chapter 9 up!~* The gangs lives are going great, until a new girl comes and changes everything between the three best friends. (Sorry, I'm not good at summeries) Please R&R, good or bad. My first story, so I need all the help I can get.
1. Her

****I have no association with Disney, the real owners of these characters yadda, yadda, yadda, you get the point**************

"I wonder who that is." Lizzie wondered out loud as she waited while one of her best friends, Miranda Sanchez, pulled her algebra book out of her locker. Miranda looked up from what she was doing in the direction that Lizzie was staring at.

"I don't know." She said as she finished shoving her book into her backpack. "She must be new."

"Probably," replied Lizzie as she continued to stare at the new girl. She was very pretty, with short, bouncy brown hair which covered her face as she looked down to shove a book into her backpack. The girl was wearing a pair of dark blue-flared jeans that had laces up the front. On top was a yellow T-shirt that had something on it, which Lizzie could not see.

"So," Miranda continued as she closed her locker. "As I was saying, I saw Ethan Craft at the mall yesterday, and I was completely mortified that he saw me with my mom." She looked up at her life long best friend, who appeared to not be paying attention. "Lizzie, you there?" There was no answer from her friend. "You who, Lizzie!" She tried again while she waved her hand in front of her face.

"Oh, what?" Lizzie said as she snapped out of her trance.

"I was telling you about my embarrassing day at the mall. Anyway."

"Actually Miranda, do you think you could hold that thought for a second. I'm going to go introduce myself to that new girl. It doesn't look like she's met anyone yet."

"Whatever, I guess my Ethan story can wait." She said slightly disappointed.

"Great, I'll see you in homeroom." Lizzie replied as she hurried off in the direction of the girl. Miranda turned in the other direction and found herself face to face with her other best friend, Gordo. She jumped back. "Dang it Gordo! Don't do that! You scared the heck out of me." She yelled at him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. Where's Lizzie going?"

"She wanted to talk to that new girl over there. She's being the typical Lizzie, nice to everyone, especially those who have no friends."

"Oh, who is that girl anyway?" Gordo asked as he looked up at Lizzie and the girl she was talking to.

"I just said that Lizzie is going to meet her. We think she's new, but we don't know who she is. Jeez, is today national 'Don't listen to Miranda day' or something?"

"Oh sorry. Well, we should probably get to class. I can meet her then."

"You mean WE can meet her then."

"Yeah, we." Gordo trailed off. He couldn't wait until homeroom so that Lizzie could tell him about that girl. There was just something about her that drew him in. He might like her even more then he liked Lizzie, which was a lot, even though he'd never told anyone about that secret crush.

**Meanwhile**

"Um, excuse me?" Lizzie said to the girl who was busy in her locker. She didn't look up. "Um," Lizzie said as she tapped on her shoulder.

"Huh?" The girl asked, exasperated as she quickly looked up. Lizzie noticed that girl had extremely bright blue eyes. She was even prettier up close.

"Hi, I'm Lizzie. You're new, right?"

'Oh, yeah, hi, I'm Michelle." She said as she stood up a little straighter. She barely caught her red-one-shoulder backpack, as it slid down her leg and almost hit the floor. In her other hand she was barely holding a large algebra book. "Sorry, I'd shake your hand or something, but they're kind of full at the moment."

"Oh, let me help you." Lizzie said as she grabbed the book out of Michelle's hand.

'Thanks, my hand was about to break."

"No problem." Lizzie replied as she helped put the book into Michelle's backpack. "So, who do you have for homeroom?"

"Um, Ms. Baker, I think."

'Oh, that's who I have too. But we have Mr. Diggs today, he's a substitute, but don't worry, he's really cool."

"Oh, cool."

"You can sit with me and my best friends Gordo and Miranda." Lizzie said as Michelle closed her locker and through her backpack over her shoulder.

"Thank you so much, you're the first person to actually talk to me today, other then this really tall cheerleader with an attitude problem, and some creepy guy that hit on me.

"Oh, you must have had a close encounter with the third and fourth kinds, Kate and Tudgeman." The girls began to walk down the hall to their first class. Lizzie told Michelle all about the different groups of the school and about Gordo and Miranda. She even told her about her little crush on Gordo in the fourth grade, but assured her that was all over. 

They finally made it to the class. Lizzie led Michelle to her group's usual seats in homeroom in the middle of the class. Miranda looked up as they neared. She took one look at Michelle and screamed, "You!" 

*******Thanks so much for reading! Please respond with anything good, or bad you want to say so I know if I should post more or anything. Thanks again!***************


	2. Pairs

***I don't own Lizzie, yadda yadda yadda****

"No way! Miranda?" Michelle asked astonished.

"Shelley!" Oh my gosh, how are you? I haven't seen you forever!" Miranda jumped up and gave Michelle a huge hug.

"It's been so long! Hi!" Michelle dropped her bag and hugged Miranda.

"Hey!"

"Um, so I guess you two know each other?" Lizzie asked with a confused look on her face. She glanced at Gordo, who looked as confused as she felt.

"Yeah! Remember that summer camp I used to go to every year? Ya know, the one that I stopped going to two years ago because I'd finally discovered the curling iron and there was no where to plug it in down there?"

"Oh, I remember," Said Gordo. 'The one in New Mexico or something right?"

"Yeah!" Said Miranda excitedly. "This is the girl I always told you about!"

"Oh! That Shelley girl that you wouldn't stop talking about until you'd been home for at least three weeks." Said Lizzie as she finally realized who and what Miranda was talking about.

"Only three weeks? It took me at least a month to tell my friends all of our camp stories each year." Shelley said as she turned back to Miranda.

"Well, you know how fast I talk." Miranda said, defending herself.

"Right, I almost forgot." Shelley replied as she hit her forehead. "I should have remembered. Like that time we were doing the play."

"And the only reason I didn't get the lead role was I said my lines to fast and no one had enough time to do their quick changes." The two began to crack up. Lizzie and Gordo just looked at each other sideways. They had no idea what they were talking about. 

Just then Mr. Diggs walked into the room. He asked everyone to sit down in their seats. Lizzie headed for her usual seat next to Miranda, but saw Miranda telling Shelley she could sit there instead. She turned around and took the seat next to Gordo and behind Miranda instead.

"First of all I'd like to announce to everyone that we have a new student today. Her name is Michelle Cummings and she moved here from Rio Rancho New Mexico. Michelle, will you please stand up and tell us what brings you to California.

She reluctantly stood up. "Hi, I'm Michelle, but you can call me Shelley if you want. My family moved here a couple days ago because my dad got transferred here. I think that's about it." She quickly sat down.

"Now on to the lesson. As you all remember, or at least should remember, at the end of yesterday's class I announced that we'd be starting a partner project today where you can actually pick your partners." The class began to cheer at this announcement. "You all have one minute to pick your partner, go!" The classroom erupted in noise as students hurried around to find a partner.

"Hey, partner!" Shelley said to Miranda as she stood up.

"Hi!" She said in response.

"Miranda!" Lizzie interrupted. "You promised me yesterday we could be partners, remember?"

"She's right." Miranda said reluctantly to Shelley. "But next time I we can be partners, I promise."

"Oh, that's ok." Shelley said as she looked around. "You just have to tell me who would be a good partner so I don't get stuck with someone creepy."

"Well, you can be partners with Gordo, he usually just partners with whoever asks because he's the smartest in the class. Gordo, you want to partner with Shelley?" Miranda asked as she looked at Gordo who was still sitting in his seat.

"Sure, as long as I don't have to be with Kate again, all she did was file her nails the hole time during our early civilization project. The poor Egyptians were covered in finger nail clippings, ugh."

"Alright, cool. And I promise I won't do my nails while we work." Shelley said as she used her finger to draw a cross over her heart.

"Good," Gordo said as he stood up. "So, where do you want to sit?"

"Excuse me,' Said Kate as she pushed Shelley away and linked her arm with Gordo's. 'Gordo is my partner. You're just going to have to find someone else."

"You must be Kate." Shelley said as she rolled her eyes.

'Yeah and I'm sure you've heard a lot about me. I _am_ the most popular girl in school you know."

"Actually, all I've heard about you is you have a fingernail fetish."

"Excuse me?" She asked as she put her hands on her hips.

"Never mind," Shelley said, annoyed. "The point is, I'm partnering with Gordo, so you better hurry and find another partner, there's only 15 seconds left."

"Is that true Gordo?" Kate asked as she snottily turned to him.

"Well, she did ask first." He said.

"Fine," Kate said as she turned around. "I'll find someone else." She said as she huffed off.

"You're just mad because he likes me better!" Shelley yelled to the back of her head, then turned to Gordo and said, "I don't like her very much."

"Yeah, me either. And thanks for saving me. I don't think I could take another weeks worth of fingernails and boy bands."

"No prob." Shelley said as the two sat down in a couple nearby desks. 'I love telling off popular annoying snobs."

"And that's definitely a good description of Kate." Gordo laughed.

"Times up!" Mr. Diggs announced. "Everyone sit down with their partners so I can explain this weeks project." The sound of people shuffling around and moving chairs filled the room. Since Gordo and Shelley we already sitting, they just watched as people fought for seats. "Ok, now that everyone is sitting, I'll explain the project. I'm going to assign each pair a different country. You must then plan a week long trip and create an itinerary for the week including meals and where you will be staying and trips to museums, historical landmarks, and other entertaining places. There will not be any budget for the trip and all of this is due next Wednesday, which gives you a week to complete it. Are there any questions?"

"Can we pick our own country?" Asked a girl near the back of the room who was wearing a cheerleading uniform the same as the one Kate had on.

"As I said,' Mr. Diggs answered. "I will _assign_ the countries to each group."

"Can we have America?" Asked a boy in the back of the class. Even his voice sounded unintelligent to Shelley.

"First of all Ethan, YOU DO NOT GET TO PICK YOUR COUNTRY," Mr. Diggs said slightly annoyed and stressing the last part of his answer. "And secondly, no one will be getting the United States, that would be a little too easy for everyone."

"Not for Ethan," mumbled Gordo under his breath. I started laughing.

"Are there any more questions?" Mr. Diggs asked. There was no response from the class. "In that case," he continued. "I'll start assigning countries. I'm going to go around with this cup and one member from each group will randomly pull out a country. I'll write down the people in your group and which country you get, so no trading!"

"But what if we get a country we've never heard of?" Asked Ethan.

"Then you better do a lot of research." Mr. Diggs answered nonchalantly as he began to walk around the room with the cup and a legal pad in his hand. The class began talking again.

"This project's going to be tough for Ethan, he probably hasn't heard of half the countries in that cup."

I laughed again, "So I guess he's not the brightest candle on the cake?"

"That's putting it nicely. Let's just say his IQ is smaller then my height, and I'm one of the shortest people in school."

"You're taller then me," Shelley replied. It was the truth. Although Gordo was short for his age at 5'3", Shelley was even shorter at 5'2".

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. I just don't know what Lizzie and Miranda see in him. He's so stupid, you can't even have a conversation with him about himself without him getting confused."

"That's the Ethan that Miranda's liked all these years?" Shelley asked surprised. "I always pictured him a little more, well, a little more like you I guess."

"You pictured Ethan like me? Oh, god help me!"

"She never had a picture, and we both know Miranda's not the greatest at describing people."

"I guess you're right. I suppose I'll forgive you, for now anyway.' Shelley laughed.

***Meanwhile***

"I can't believe you asked Shelley to be your partner before me!" Lizzie said after Mr. Diggs had started assigning countries. "I thought we were best friends."

"We are best friends, it's just I haven't seen Shelley in almost three years, dang, I didn't know you'd overreact so much." Miranda defended herself.

"Overreact? I'm not overreacting! You promised me yesterday that we'd be partners and you were about to break that promise just so you could partner with some girl you haven't seen for two years from camp. You wouldn't have even seen she was here if it weren't for me."

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry." Miranda apologized. 'I guess I just got caught up in seeing Shelley. I won't do it again, I promise."

"Alright, I guess you're forgiven."

"Good. Now doesn't Ethan look so good in that new shirt of his?" The problem seemed to be resolved for now, but there was something still bugging Lizzie, she just didn't know what…

~~ Thanks for reading, and please respond! ~~


	3. what fight?

Because of where Lizzie and Miranda were sitting, Mr. Diggs would assign their country long before Shelley and Gordo would get theirs. They'd be almost the last pair, but Lizzie and Miranda were already the next group to pick. The two girls watched as Kate and Larry Tudgeman, the school's biggest nerd, chose Japan as their country to research.

"I can't believe Kate got stuck with Tudgeman. I almost feel bad for her." Lizzie commented as Mr. Diggs wrote down the other pair's information.

"I don't. She deserves it, especially since she treated Shelley that way." Miranda said as she continued staring at Ethan Craft.

"What do you mean since she treated Shelley that way? All she did was try to get a decent partner." Lizzie argued.

"She practically threw Shelley out of her way and said 'screw you, he's mine'." Miranda said as she peeled her eyes away from Ethan in order to face Lizzie. 'What's you're problem today Lizzie? First you almost have a heart attack because I had a momentary brain lapse, and now you're actually sticking up for Kate."

"Nothing's my problem, ok. I guess I'm just mad at my mom or something, I don't know. Look, Mr. Diggs is coming. I'll pick the country, ok?"

"Whatever." Miranda said. She had known Lizzie long enough that she knew when she was hiding something, but couldn't tell what it might be. 'Oh well,' she thought. 'I'm sure it's nothing, we're best friends, she'd tell me if it were something important, right?'

***Meanwhile***

"So, how long have you, Lizzie, and Miranda been friends?" Shelley asked Gordo as they waited for Mr. Diggs to get to them so they could choose a country.

"For as long as I can remember. I've known Lizzie forever, and we met Miranda in pre-school. We've been best friends ever since."

"And you guys never fight or anything, right, you're like the Brady Bunch?" Shelley asked sarcastically.

"Actually, we sort of are. The last big fight we had was in the fifth grade when, oh, never mind."

"When what?"

"It doesn't matter, we just got really mad at Miranda and didn't talk for a while, that's all."

"No, now you have to tell me."

"I told you, it doesn't matter."

"Please!" Shelley pleaded, giving her best puppy dog eyes.

'Dang it', Gordo thought. 'How can I say no to that? I just don't want to hurt her!' "No," he said out loud. "You don't want to know."

"Yes I do. Please tell me! If you don't, I'm going to think about it constantly until you tell me, then I won't be able to work on the project." She said convincingly. Then she smirked and said, "I may just have to do my nails the whole time."

"You know, you're very convincing."

"It's a gift, so, is it working."

"Sorry, but I'm pretty hard to convince, so no."

"Oh, come on, please!"

"You don't want to know." Gordo said as he looked away.

Shelley put her hands on Gordo's cheeks and turned his head to face her. A shiver ran down his spine when her hands touched his skin. "Yes I do." She looked right into his eyes and continued holding his face lightly. "Please, I want to know." Gordo sighed and Shelley let go of his face. "I don't care how bad or stupid it is, but you sparked my curiosity, and now I _have_ to know."

"Fine, I guess I'll tell you. But you probably won't like it, and you can't tell them I told you."

"I won't"

"And you have to promise not to be mad at me or Lizzie."

"Why would I be mad, I didn't know you guys back then?"

"Exactly my point."

"Fine, I won't be mad, I promise. Now will you please tell me?"

"Ok, but you're not going to like it…"


	4. The fight

***I don't own Lizzie, or anybody else from the cast, even though I'd really like to own Gordo…but that's beside the point***

Mr. Diggs approached Lizzie and Miranda's desks and said, "Ah, Ms. McGuire and Ms. Sanchez. I figured the two of you would be partnering."

"Yeah, well, that almost didn't happen, now did it?" Lizzie said snottily as she put her hand in the cup to retrieve a country.

"Jeez Lizzie, will you drop it already! I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to make you mad or anything. Please, let it go." Miranda said in return. She was very annoyed.

"I'm just going to pretend like I didn't here that fight, and just stand here and wait until you two have a country." Mr. Diggs said, obviously slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry, Mr. Diggs," Miranda apologized. "Lizzie and I just had a misunderstanding, that's all."

"Good, because it'd be a shame for you two to get into a big fight, you're like frick and frack, Minnie and Daisey, King Arthur the third and his loyal advisor!" Mr. Diggs said enthusiastically.

"Who?" Lizzie asked as she finally pulled out a strip of paper.

"Never mind," he said as he replaced the cup in his hand with a pen. "What'd you pick?"

"Um," Lizzie said as she opened the piece of paper. "Lichten…how do you say that?"

"Ah," Mr. Diggs said as he read the paper in Lizzie's hand. "Liechtenstein. A small country, but oh so interesting." He wrote down their selection on his legal pad.

"Exactly how small are we talking?" Miranda asked quizzically.

"About the size of New Jersey, probably smaller." He said nonchalantly. 'Well, off to the next group. Good luck girls!" With that, Mr. Diggs walked to the next group in the class.

"New Jersey?" Lizzie exclaimed. "Do you know how small that state is?"

"Yeah, but at least they have cool accents," Miranda said reassuringly.

"True," Lizzie agreed. The two girls began to laugh.

***Meanwhile***

"I don't care if I'm not going to like it." Shelley said to Gordo. "Just tell me about the only fight the three of you have, please!"

"Fine. The whole thing started when Miranda got back from camp the summer before the fifth grade. She'd had a great time at camp and wanted to tell Lizzie and me all about it, but we didn't really care. We'd done a lot over the summer, including becoming closer then we ever had, and with Miranda back, things suddenly felt different, and one reason was all of the bragging she was doing about her 'best camp friend'."

"Me?" Shelley asked him.

"Yeah, but we didn't know it was you," he moved his hands up and down in her direction.

"Ok, so where does the fighting start?"

"Well, the worst happened about a week after she came back…

~Flashback~ (Gordo's POV)

"She's bugging me so much lately!" Lizzie complained to me about Miranda while we sat at a table in the Digital Bean, a local hang out. "Why couldn't she just stay in New Mexico with her, 'like, totally cool bunk buddy'" she had been mocking Miranda when she said the last part.

"I know what you mean. We were having so much fun just the two of us, then she had to come back and go on and on about that Shirley girl, or whatever her name is." Gordo agreed.

"It's Shelley. How could you forget, that's all she's been talking about for the past week straight."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot."

"I swear, if I have to listen to one more sentence starting in 'One time, me and Shelley' or 'Shelley would say' I think I'm going to scream." Lizzie said before taking a sip of her milk shake. I laughed at her joke and nodded in agreement. "We were having the best summer ever, and then Miranda had to come along and bore us to death with her constant Shelley stories. I mean, at least…" Lizzie continued to talk, but I stopped listening because just then I saw Miranda walking toward us.

"Um, Lizzie." I tried to stop her, but it was too late. Miranda was close enough to hear Lizzie's ranting about how the end of our summer was ruined by her constant stories about camp.

"Is this what you guys always do when I'm not around?" Miranda asked loudly as she approached our table. "Talk behind my back about me and my other friends?"

Lizzie quickly turned around and was face to face with the last person she wanted to see at the moment. "Miranda."

"You want to finish that conversation? I'd really like to know what else you guys think about me and my 'pathetic life at camp'" She used quotation fingers to emphasize the last part of her statement.

"Look Miranda, you just caught the end of that, I can explain" I began, but Lizzie cut me off.

"Don't lie to her Gordo, it's time we told the truth." She turned back to Miranda. "Gordo and I are totally sick of listening to your stupid stories about camp. We don't care about what happened to you or how much fun your dumb new friend is. I mean you're probably making her up anyway."

"First of all, she isn't dumb, she's great and I know you two would love her, and second, I can't believe you guys would say that I made something like that up, let alone talk behind my back about it. I thought you were my friends."

"Yeah well we thought that too, until you decided to bore us 24-7 about some girl that you would obviously rather be with then us." Lizzie shot back.

"You're being awfully quiet Gordo, do you agree with her?" Miranda asked me.

This was obviously my cue to help out Lizzie. "Well, you do talk about her a lot, and it does seem like you like her better then us."

"I can't believe you two are saying this to me!"

"Why don't you go complain to your stupid friend then." Lizzie said as she thumped back into her seat again.

"You two are the most awful people I've ever met. Neither of you better talk to me again, ever!" Miranda turned and stomped out of the building. I sat down with Lizzie and we finished our milkshakes before leaving as well.

~ End flashback ~

"Lizzie and I didn't talk to Miranda for two weeks after that, and she didn't try to talk to us either. Eventually we became friends again, and were closer then ever, but up until that point, it was the worst two weeks I've had in my life. We promised we'd never talk about that again, and haven't even told anyone, until now that is."

"So the only fight you three have ever had was because of me? Now I feel way guilty." Shelley said as she put her elbow on the desk and leaned her head on her hand.

"It wasn't the only fight, just the worst."

"Oh, that makes me feel _so_ much better." She said with a little laugh.

"Besides, that was four years ago, and we didn't really know you. Now that I've actually talked to you, I can see why Miranda had so much to say, you seem like a really interesting and fun person."

"Thanks, that really does make me feel a lot better."

"Good. Oh, here comes Mr. Diggs, you can pick the country if you want."

"Ok, thanks."

"So, Mr. Gordon, you've decided to partner with Ms. Cummings I see." Mr. Diggs said as he approached our desks.

"Yeah, I thought I'd give the new girl a chance," Gordo said as he gave her a sideways glance.

"It wasn't your choice to partner with me, Miranda made you." Shelley contradicted him.

"Well, that's because I'd never talked to you. If I had to pick again, I'd still choose you over Kate."

"Thanks, that's a real compliment," Shelley sarcastically answered.

"Well, here's the cup so you can pick your country. There's only three left, so the pickings are slim. Choose wisely." Mr. Diggs said as he held the cup out to them. 

Shelley reached her hand in and pulled out the first piece of paper she touched. She unfolded it and announced that the two would be researching Australia.

"Ah, a great country," said Mr. Diggs as he began to write it down on the legal pad. "A great continent too, looks like you two have a lot of work ahead of you. Well, better be going, I can't keep the last two groups waiting." He walked off in the direction of the remaining groups.

After Mr. Diggs was out of hearing distance Gordo said, "Hey, Shelley, make sure you don't let Lizzie and Miranda find out I told you about that fight, ok?"

"Why not?"

"I don't think they would have wanted me to. But I felt like I could trust you, ya know?"

"Yeah, thanks, and I won't tell, I promise." Shelley used her finger to draw a cross across her chest.


	5. The fight: round 2

****Even though I would love to…I unfortunately don't own Lizzzie, Gordo, Miranda, or anybody else in the t.v. show.****

The morning that day went pretty well. Of the three classes Miranda and Lizzie had together, Shelley was in all but one. The one that she wasn't in, however, she had with Gordo. As first days of school go, Shelley's was going pretty well. Since she had three instant friends, she didn't have to worry about that, and after her first class where she told off Kate, none of the cheerleaders wanted to mess with her. The only thing going wrong was that Larry Tudgman insisted on hitting on her every chance he got. While the now group of four walked to a table outside during lunch, Shelley told them about her latest encounter.

"Ugh, I was just standing in line to get my lunch, and guess who was behind me."

"One try and I've got it," Miranda, who was standing to her right, said. "Tudgeman, right?"

"Yes!" Shelley exclaimed. "Every time I turn around he's there! I think he's stalking me or something."

"Don't flatter yourself, he's like that with almost everyone." Lizzie said snottily.

"Good, then it won't last for long, right?" Shelley asked, ignoring the rude undertone of the comment.

"I guess not." Lizzie replied, rolling her eyes.

"Great. I don't think I can take another day of him waiting for me around every corner." Shelley was definitely relieved to hear that she wasn't the only girl who had to go through that torture.

"No worries," Miranda said as she chose a table with four chairs and sat down. "Larry Tudgeman is known for having a new crush every day. He'll probably be over you by tomorrow. And I know how you feel; I went through the same thing last year. He even used my picture as a screen saver on his computer. Ugh." Miranda shuddered.

"Don't you think you're being a little harsh?" Lizzie said as she chose a seat next to Miranda. Shelley sat on the other side of her old camp friend, and Gordo sat in the last seat between Lizzie and the new addition to their group.

"No." Miranda said simply before taking a sip of her milk. 

"Well, I think you are. Shelley doesn't even know Larry, they could be perfect for each other." Lizzie said to Miranda as though Shelley wasn't there.

"No one's perfect for Larry Tudgeman, Lizzie. I thought you of all people would know that." Miranda was obviously beginning to get annoyed by this new, more judgmental Lizzie. The last time she'd seen this side of her was back in the summer before sixth grade.

"I'm just saying that Shelley shouldn't be so harsh on someone that she barely even knows." Lizzie took a bite of the roll on her plate.

"Um, if you hadn't noticed, I'm still at the table." I said to Lizzie. "I'd appreciate it if you'd stop talking like I'm not around."

"Fine," Lizzie said as she snapped her head to face me. "I think that you are being very selfish to judge Larry so quickly before you really know him. Happy?"

"Well I appreciate you talking to me like a person, but I think you are wrong. Just because I haven't been here for very long, doesn't mean that I don't know about some of the people here, namely, Larry Tudgman. Miranda always used to tell me how much of a creep he is, and it doesn't take long to notice a guy who smells like he hasn't showered in a week following you everywhere you go. Also, wasn't it you who referred to Larry as 'the third kind'?" Shelley had begun to not like Lizzie as much as she did when they first met.

"It's different coming from me, I actually know him. You're judging him by the way he looks and acts. If you ask me, I think you are a stuck up selfish snob who doesn't believe in getting to know someone or second chances. " Lizzie said coldly.

"Well I didn't ask, and, you know, if I had judged you on how you look and on first impressions, I wouldn't be sitting here right now because I would have taken you for a prissy wannabe cheer leader. But you know what, I didn't. I figured that even though you were more perky then the people I was used to, you were obviously nice enough to talk to someone who was new and had no idea what was going on." Shelley stood up and grabbed her lunch off of the table. "I don't need this, ok. My first day has been hard enough without having to take crap from you. I'm going to find somewhere else to sit." With that, Shelley walked back into the school and through away the rest of her lunch. She didn't really know where she was going or what she was going to do for the last twenty minutes of lunch, so she walked into the first door she saw, the library. She walked around until she found an empty corner and sat down in a chair where she began to cry. She hadn't cried since she had left all of her friends a week ago in New Mexico, and at that moment, Shelley realized how much she really did miss them. They had never called her a snob or told her she was judgmental, but maybe they were just being the good friends that they were. Maybe she really was stuck up and nobody had ever told her so. What if Lizzie was right?

***Meanwhile***

"What did you do that for?" Asked Miranda. She couldn't believe that her best friend had just said those things to anyone, let alone Shelley, the only other best friend she'd ever had.

"What are you talking about?" Lizzie asked amazed that Miranda wasn't comforting her by now. "She just called me a wannabe cheer leader and said I was prissy."

"No she didn't, she said that was her first impression of you. First impressions change you know. And you called her a snob!" Miranda was yelling by now.

"Oh she deserved it and you know it. I was only telling her the truth." Lizzie sunk back in her chair. She was content with her decision to tell off Shelley.

"I can't believe you are saying this!" Miranda said as she stood up. "This is just like that fight we had back in the sixth grade, only this time, you're not just hurting me, you're hurting Shelley too. I'm going to find her." Miranda stomped off in search of her best camp friend.

"I can't believe her. I'm so right." Lizzie said to Gordo as she sat up again.

"Well," Gordo trailed off. He hadn't talked during the whole incident because he was trying to stay out of it all. He really did think that Lizzie was wrong, but he wasn't about to tell her that. The last thing he wanted to do was lose his best friend.

"I can't believe you!" Lizzie yelled.

"What? I didn't say anything," Gordo said confusedly.

"Exactly, you should have helped me out. You know that I'm right and all you did was sit there!"

"I never said you were right."

"So you're on their side! Why don't you just leave me here too then!'

"I never said that either."

"Well you have to pick a side Gordo. Either I'm right or Miranda's right. It's as simple as that." Lizzie really hoped that Gordo would pick her. She knew that she had done the right thing and that Gordo would agree.

"I'm not getting into this." Gordo said calmly as he opened a bag of cookies and began to eat them.

~~ Please respond! Even if you don't have anything to say, just so I know people are reading. Thanks a bunch!! ~~


	6. Save Me!

***I don't own them, blah blah blah***

~A/N this chapter is kinda long, but it's a good one! Thanks for reading!~

After searching for ten minutes, Miranda finally found Shelley in the library. She was sitting in a big arm chair crying. Without saying a word, Miranda walked up to Shelley, kneeled beside her and just gave her a big hug. Shelley immediately recognized who was hugging her and returned it. Then Miranda whispered to her, "I'm so sorry she said that. She had no right. I am so sorry." She just kept saying that she was sorry, which was exactly what Shelley needed to hear. After a few minutes of this, Shelley had finally settled down enough to talk. She pulled out of the hug and smiled a Miranda while wiping her tears.

"Thank you for finding me. I really needed that."

"No problem, that's what friends are for."

"But are things going to be ok between you three?"

"I don't know, but I hope so."

"I would feel so horrible if I tore you guys apart again."

"What do you mean again?" Miranda asked suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing, I don't know what I'm saying, you know me." Shelley remembered the promise she had made to Gordo about his story. He had told her that he trusted her, and she wasn't about to break that trust, she had kind of growing to like that boy.

Miranda laughed and said, "Oh yeah I'd almost forgot.' She hugged Shelley one last time before the bell rang to show that lunch was over.

The rest of the day didn't go quite as smoothly as the morning had. Of the three classes she had after lunch, Shelley had only one with Miranda and Gordo and one without any of the three. In her last class of the day, Shelley was very disappointed to learn that she had biology with both Lizzie and Kate. Although she sat as far away as possible from both of them as possible, she didn't think that this class could get any worse, until it did.

"Today I will assign partners for tomorrows frog dissection." Announced Mr. Glennwald, the teacher. He began calling out the names of people in pairs, most of which Shelley didn't recognize. She was only half-paying attention when she heard her name called. "And Michelle, our new student, will be paired with, let's see, ahh, Miss McGuire."

"What?" Shelley asked as she snapped to attention.

"I said that you and Lizzie are going to be partnering for tomorrows lab." Mr. Glennwald replied, annoyed that he had to repeat himself.

"Oh," she said as she sunk back into her chair, and then added in a mumble. "That's what I was afraid of." The rest of the class was spent with Mr. Glennwald explaining the procedure for the next day and the occasional dirty look exchanged between Shelley and Lizzie. When the bell rang to announce the end of the day, Shelley was relieved to finally be able to leave the tension of her last period class. She quickly stood up, collected her things, and headed for the door, which led to the hallway. As she approached it, she was cut off by the last person she wanted to see, Larry Tudgeman.

"Why hello there Shelley." He said, trying to sound smooth.

"What do you want Larry?" Shelley said as she shifted her wait from one foot to the other.

"Just to be graced by you're presence Friday night at dinner." Just then, the only other person that could have made the situation worse walked up. It was Kate and her squad of sheep-like cheerleaders.

"Oh, how sweet!' Kate said in her annoyingly squeaky voice. "Tudgeman finally found the perfect match in the new freak girl here!"

"Awww!" Said her sheep in unison. Then the group erupted in laughter as they walked off into the hall.

"Screw you Kate!" Shelley yelled toward the over developed cheerleader. "Look Larry, I don't want to be mean or anything, but we don't really know each other at all, and I really have to get going, so, bye." She quickly waved and tried to leave the room, but was stopped by Tudgeman's greasy hand on her upper arm.

"We can get to know each other," he said, trying to be convincing. "I'm really a good guy!'

She turned back to him and tried to wipe the slimy handprint off of her arm. "I'm sure you are, Larry, but you're just not, um, my type. I have to go." She quickly turned and began to walk. This time she got away, but not without hearing Tudgeman yell from behind her "But I can change! I can change!"

As Shelley entered the hallway, she immediately spotted Gordo. She ran up to him and panted, "Tell me he's not following me." Her back was in the direction that she had just come from and Gordo was facing the other way.

"You mean Tudgeman? Oh yeah, he's still coming." Gordo said as he sustained a laugh.

"Dang it! Save me!" She pleaded.

"Alright, come on." Gordo said as he looked around. He then grabbed Shelley's arm and the pair ducked into a classroom that appeared to be empty. They made their way to the back of the room where there was a small office. Gordo closed the door until it was barely cracked open.

'Thank you so much." Shelley said, very relieved. 'He just asked me out and I didn't want to hurt his feelings."

"So you ran away?" Gordo asked as he sat down in the large chair behind a desk.

"No!" She said as she shook her head. "Well, kind of, but not before I told him he wasn't my type."

"And that's so much better." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Shelley shot back as she playfully hit him on the arm. They were silent for a few seconds when Shelley said, "you think he's gone?"

"Probably, I think we can go now." Gordo replied as he stood up. He was about to open the door when he heard the main door into the classroom open. He heard two sets of feet walk into the room. "Damn," he whispered. "Now we can't leave."

"Why not?" Shelley asked.

"Because we're not supposed to be in here and if we get caught we'll be in deep crap."

"Oh, well who's out there?"

"I don't know," he said.

The two leaned close to the door so that they could hear what the people in the classroom were saying. A girl was the first to speak, "Why did you want me to come in here with you? I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Oh my gosh, that's Miranda!" Shelley whispered.

"We need to talk." Said the other voice.

"And that's Lizzie," Gordo informed Shelley. The two new friends who were stuck in the small office were silent so that they could hear what was going on in the other room.

***In the classroom***

"What do we need to talk about? I already told you what I think." Miranda said as she sat down in one of the many desks in the room.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry if I offended you when I was fighting with Shelley." Lizzie said. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Well, you know what Lizzie, you did. Shelley's my friend and when you say bad stuff about my friend, it hurts me. I would feel the same way if Kate ever said those things to you."

"Well, I guess I can't blame you for being mad, because I'm sure I would have reacted the same way, but I still feel like I was right. I know Shelley's your friend, but there's something about her that I don't like."

"What don't you like?" Miranda asked.

"I'm not really sure." Lizzie said as she walked around Miranda's desk to the one next to her and sat down. "I just feel like she's…well, I don't know, but something really bugs me about her."

"Can you please give her a chance? Whenever I used to tell her about you, she said that she would love to meet you one day. I just don't want to disappoint her by not meeting her expectations with the great Lizzie I always talked about."

"You told her I was great/"

"I told her a lot of really good things about you."

"Well then I guess w can't disappoint you now can we? But I'm warning you, I'm probably not going to like it."

'I didn't say you had to like it, I just asked that you give her a chance."

"I will, I promise." The two girls stood up and hugged each other and began to walk out of the room with their arms around each other's shoulders. Then Lizzie said as they walked, "It might be pretty hard for me to act like I like her. There's just something that I really hate about that girl…" her voice trailed off as they entered the hallway.

After the main door to the classroom could be heard closing, the two spies walked out of their hiding space. Shelley had a shocked look on her face as she slowly walked into the larger room.

"Well, that was, um, interesting," Gordo said as he followed Shelley out.

"I've never met anyone that really doesn't like me." Shelley kept looking strait ahead. "At least I don't think I have."

"I'm sure you haven't. And I'm sure that Lizzie didn't really mean what she said. She doesn't know you very well. And from what I can see, there's not much to dislike about you.'

"But you don't know me either," Shelley finally snapped out of her trance and looked at Gordo. "Maybe I really am somebody that's easy to hate. Maybe Lizzie's right." She sat down on top of a desk and looked down at her hands.

"Shelley," Gordo began, but he looked p and saw that Shelley was still looking down. He walked up to her and held her face in his hands. "Look at me." he said. She reluctantly looked up and into his brown eyes. "Lizzie didn't know what she was talking about. She's going against her own words by judging you before she knows you. You two haven't even had a real conversation, but the two of us have, which means that I know a hell of a lot more about what kind of person you are then she does." Just then Gordo heard a voice he recognized as Lizzie's from in the hall.

"Hold on Miranda, I just have to grab my…" She trailed off as she opened the door and saw Gordo standing there holding Shelley's face.

~~ It might be a while till I have the next chapter up, but I'll do my best to be quick! Please respond with any suggestions! ~~


	7. Chasing Lizzie

**I don't own anyone from the show, sadly, I'm not rich enough to**

"Lizzie!" Gordo said startled. He quickly dropped Shelley's face and stepped away from her. Shelley quickly wiped the tears away that had been forming in her eyes.

"I, um," Lizzie stuttered. There was a look of shock on her face at what she had just seen. For all she knew, she had barely stopped a kiss from happening. "Uh," her eyes shot between Shelley and Gordo. Then she quickly turned and left the room. She hurried down the deserted hallway to join Miranda who was waiting for her.

"I thought you were getting your purse?" She asked, confused by Lizzie's urgency.

"Let's just go." She grabbed Miranda's arm and forced her down the hall.

"Lizzie, what's wrong?"

"I'll tell you later, hurry."

***Meanwhile***

"I have to get her." Gordo said as he began to hurry out of the classroom.

"But Gordo, wait!" Shelley yelled to him.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Gordo had stopped and turned back to face Shelley. "I have to find her and make sure she knows what happened." With that, he hurried out and into the hall to the echoes of Shelley calling him back. He ran down the hall in the direction that he thought Lizzie had gone. He had to stop her before she got the wrong idea.

Back in the classroom, Shelley was left standing alone and shocked. She had no idea what had just happened. One minute she was running from Larry Tudgeman and the next she was hiding in a teacher's office eaves dropping on one of her very best friends. Then when she thought things were perking up, when she was having that wonderful moment with Gordo, everything came crashing down again when Lizzie walked in. This day had been one of the worst she'd had in her life; surpassed only by the day she'd left New Mexico, and the day she'd learned that it would be necessary. She slowly began to walk out of the classroom when she noticed a purse laying on one of the desks. She picked it up and inspected it. It was a small round handbag with a small handle. She opened it up to see if there was a name anywhere in it. She found the usual, a couple things of lip-gloss, a pack of gum, and a couple hair scrunches. Then she found what she was looking for. It was a small, purple wallet. She buttoned it so she could find a name or something to tell her who it belonged to. She found ten dollars in the wallet and some pictures, but no I.D. She looked through the pictures, hoping for a clue. She found pictures of people that she recognized from seeing at school. Then she found a school picture of Miranda and read the back. It said the usual thing that you write on your best friend's picture, hey Lizzie, we'll be friends forever, things like that. "Oh, it's Lizzie's purse, I should have been able to guess that." Shelley said out loud to herself. Even though she knew whose purse it was, she continued to look through the pictures. When she got to Gordo's picture, she was surprised and amazed at what she saw. "Oh my god!"

***Meanwhile***

"Lizzie!" Gordo yelled as he spotted the two girls rushing down the hall. Lizzie glanced back but continued to hurry Miranda outside.

"Aren't you going to wait for him?" Miranda asked as she tried to resist Lizzie's forceful pull on her.

"No, come on!" She tried to continue pulling Miranda, but she had stopped in her tracks. She was stronger then Lizzie, so it was easy for her to resist movement.

"Please Miranda, Let's just go." She was looking over Miranda's head at the quickly approaching Gordo.

"He's our best friend Lizzie, we should at least wait for him to catch up.'

""But he's who I'm running from." She let go of Miranda's arm. 'You coming or not, because I'm out of here." Miranda didn't move so Lizzie just rushed off on her own. Miranda was left in the middle to decide between her two best friends. She decided that she better go find Lizzie, who seemed to be really worried, so she began to run in the direction Lizzie had gone in. When she came to the end of the hall, she decided to go right, hoping that she'd chosen the correct direction. She started down the new hall, but her forward progress was interrupted by an arm shooting out from a broom closet and pulling her in.

"Ouch!' Miranda yelled, "What the heck?"

"Shhh!' She heard Lizzie's voice whisper. "It's me. I'm hiding from Gordo, so be quiet." The two girls stood in silence as they waited for any sign that the coast was clear. They heard Gordo's feet rush by. Then he stopped and the two girls could hear him panting.

Outside of the closet, Gordo was looking around. He was panting and holding his side where a cramp had formed from the running. He knew he had seen Miranda turn this direction, but he had no clue what happened to her. He saw at the end of the hall was a door that led to the outside. He guessed that the girls had gone out there and headed home. He reluctantly surged up enough strength to run outside and try to catch the girls at home.

When they heard the door slam closed, the girls decided they were safe and cautiously exited their hiding spot. They stumbled out of the dark broom closet into the hall flooded with light from the many windows. "Mind telling me what that was all about?" Miranda asked Lizzie as they began to walk outside.

"I don't know, I just had to get away from him. You have no idea what I saw!" Lizzie said as she opened the door to the outside and walked through it.

'You're right, so why don't you just tell me?" Miranda replied.

"Well," Lizzie began as the two began to walk to the Digital Bean. "When I walked back into that classroom to get my purse, I saw Shelley and Gordo sitting there!" She paused to see Miranda's reaction.

"And," Miranda urged Lizzie to continue. She wasn't as livid as Lizzie seemed to be.

"He was holding her face!" Lizzie screamed.

'Oh my god, we have to call the cops!" Miranda said sarcastically.

"Miranda!" Lizzie whined. "I'm serious!"

"I know, but I don't see what the big deal is."

"He was holding her face like they were about to kiss!"

"Go Gordo," Miranda looked pleased with his good taste.

"No, not 'go, Gordo'! What if they actually start dating or something?"

"Then I think Shelley has an odd taste in guys, and we should be happy for Gordo."

"No! We can't be happy for Gordo! He's not supposed to have a girlfriend! Especially her!" Lizzie was obviously very freaked out by the thought of Gordo and Shelley being involved.

"Don't you think you're over reacting a little?" Miranda asked. "It's not like you have feelings for." Suddenly Miranda's eyes got very wide and she covered her mouth with her hand.

"What?"

"You like Gordo!"

~~ Tell me what you think! ~~


	8. the pic, and other stuff

**Sorry it took so long to post. I just started band camp (This one time, at band camp…) Go band geeks, woo! Hehe, well, enjoy!**

Shelley just stared at the picture. She didn't know what to think of it. There was nothing weird about the actual picture of Gordo; in fact, it was a pretty good one. The strange part was the fact that the picture was drawn on. In a pink gel pen was a heart drawn around Gordo's face. She recognized the pen as one that she'd found inside of the purse. She flipped the picture over to read the writing. It simply said: To: Lizzie From: Gordo, 2001. She flipped the picture back over continued staring at it. She finally realized that the thing she had been speculating all day was really true. Lizzie had feelings for Gordo.

**Meanwhile**

"Gordo?" Lizzie asked. "What makes you think I like Gordo?"

"How come you never told me!" Miranda exclaimed. "I should have noticed sooner."

"Wait, I never said that I like Gordo."

"You didn't have to say it, I can tell. We have to tell him!" Miranda was beginning to get very excited at the thought of her two best friends going out.

"I don't like him!" Lizzie snapped at Miranda

"Sure you don't" Miranda said skeptically.

Lizzie stopped walking and grabbed Miranda's arm so she was facing her. "Miranda, I do not like Gordo. I promise you. You know how bad I am at lying, so you know I'm telling you the truth."

Miranda cocked her head slightly to the side and looked at Lizzie. "Really?" She asked. She wanted to believe Lizzie, she just didn't know if she could.

"I swear to you that I only like Gordo as a friend, nothing more."

Miranda was finally satisfied with Lizzie's answer. "I believe you," She said as the two began walking toward the Digital Bean again. "But why did you get all defensive when you found out that Shelley and Gordo might have something going?"

"You know what I think of Shelley, I just don't want my best friend to get involved with her."

"Well don't worry, if anything does happen between them, I won't let Shelley hurt him either." Silently in her own mind, Lizzie was relived that she had been so convincing. It was lucky for her that she'd practiced lying about her true feelings for Gordo alone in her room. Without that practice she might not have been able to lie to Miranda so well. She did feel guilty for not being truthful to her best friend, but she just couldn't let her find out.

**Meanwhile**

Gordo ran down the street that Lizzie lived on. He decided this would be the best place to start his search for the girls. He ran up the McGuire's walkway and knocked quickly on the door. Mrs. McGuire opened it.

"Why hello Gordo," she said pleasantly.

"Lizzie…Miranda…here?" He panted in response.

"Actually, they're not home yet. They probably decided to spend the afternoon at Miranda's, but you can feel free to come in and wait if you'd like." Gordo just shook his head and ran off again, leaving a confused Mrs. McGuire standing in the doorway.

He ran to the next street over which was Miranda's street. He soon arrived at her house and knocked. This time there was no answer. He decided that the girls weren't there. He leaned on the wall of the entryway to the house, panting. He didn't know what else to do. He had to find Lizzie before she jumped to conclusions. It was true that if she hadn't walked into the room, Shelley and him may have indulged in a small kiss, but he would have never wanted Lizzie to know about it. Now that he knew what she really thought of Shelley, he felt awful for feeling they way he did for her. For both of them. He knew that eventually he would have to decide between the two, but right now seemed a bit too soon for that. Sure, the easy thing to do would be to pick Lizzie, he did know her better and they had shared so much, but Shelley was still there. From the moment he had seen her he knew there was something special about her. It was almost like love at first sight, although he knew that fourteen was far too young to really know what love feels like. As he stood and weighed his options, his heart began to slow and his breathing became regular again. He decided that the only thing he could do now was take a walk to sort out his thoughts. As he walked through the residential area toward no specific destination, he found himself heading for the Digital Bean. He decided he would go in and get himself a smoothie while he thought things over.

**Meanwhile**

Shelley was outside of the school now; carrying the purse that she now knew was Lizzie's. After seeing the picture she had realized why Lizzie had such a problem with her. She obviously liked Gordo, and seeing him spend time with another girl had probably hurt her. She didn't want to seem stuck up or anything like that, but even she had noticed some sparks between Gordo and herself. She could only imagine how it would look to someone who also had feelings for him. 'Lizzie shouldn't worry' she thought to herself. 'I'll never be able to have what I really want with Gordo, my dad would never let me.' She shrugged off the disappointment and continued to walk. Since she was new to the city, she had no idea exactly where she was going. She looked around. While lost in her thoughts, Shelley's feet had carried her to somewhere she'd never actually seen before. 'Great,' she thought. 'Now I'm lost.' She looked around for an inviting building that she thought might be able to help her. "The Digital Bean" she said out loud to nobody but herself. "It's worth a try."


	9. The Digital Bean

** Here's the next chapter! It might take a while for number ten, cus I'm starting school next week, but I'll do my best! Hope you like it!**

Lizzie and Miranda had chosen a table near the middle of the floor at the Digital Bean when they arrived. "So, what are you going to get?" Miranda asked Lizzie as she looked at the large list of choices on the menu sitting at their table.

"Nothing, my money was in my purse and I left that at school, remember?" She replied.

"I'll buy you something." Miranda said as she shrugged her shoulders. "But you have to pay me back."

Lizzie laughed a little. "Ok, sounds like a plan." She looked at the menu and the two girls decided on strawberry smoothies. 

After ordering, Miranda started a conversation by saying, "So you really don't have a crush on Gordo?"

"Miranda!" Lizzie yelled, "I old you! No!"

"Ok, ok," she said. "I was just making sure you didn't change your mind."

"Well, I didn't, so will you please drop it?"

"Yeah, I will."

"Thank you." Even though she had told Lizzie that she believed her, Miranda was still skeptical. She had always had the feeling that Lizzie might have a thing for Gordo, and after Lizzie got so defensive about Shelley, she was sure that it was true. She couldn't abandon a feeling this strong.

Miranda's thoughts were interrupted by Shelley walking through the door of the teen-age hang out. She walked in, stopped, and looked around. She spotted Miranda and Lizzie sitting at a nearby table. Although pleased to see Miranda, Shelley was reluctant to say hello because of what she had overheard her saying earlier. She almost turned around to leave, but decided against it since she was carrying the purse. She sighed heavily, then began to walk toward the table. 'This should be interesting' she thought. She plastered a fake smile on her face and said, "Hey Miranda!" in a fake, perky voice as she approached their table.

"Oh, uh, Shelley, hey, what's up?"

"Nothing, I was just walking home and somehow ended up here. You know how it is in a new place."

"Yeah, I totally get it." Miranda agreed.

The two girls laughed a little before Shelley sucked in a deep breath of air and turned to Lizzie. 'I was actually looking for you, I found your purse in that classroom and thought I'd bring it to you." She held out the bag to Lizzie.

"Oh, thanks," she said as she grabbed it away from her.

Then Shelley got a great idea to get Lizzie back for what she'd said. "You know, you should really put an I.D. or something in there. I had to look through all of your pictures to find your name on anything." She slightly grinned.

"You looked through _all_ of the pictures in here?" Lizzie asked with a bit of urgency.

"Well, not all of them. I stopped after I saw Gordo's picture."

As Lizzie's eyes grew, their conversation was interrupted by a familiar voice saying, "What picture?" The three girls quickly turned to find Gordo walking up to them. Shelley and Gordo locked eyes, but he turned quickly to look at Lizzie instead. She was confused by his avoidence of her gaze. She thought that they'd had something, hadn't they?

"Gordo," Miranda said. "Well this is getting interesting, isn't it."

"I'm out," Lizzie said as she stood up and collected her things.

"Wait," Gordo said as he grabbed her arm. "I was looking for you. I think we need to talk."

"I don't want to talk." She replied coldly as she pulled her arm away.

"You don't have to, just listen." He pleaded.

"Fine," she reluctantly agreed.

"Uh, can we go somewhere more private?" Gordo said as he looked around at the other two girls at the table.

"Anything you need to say can be said in front of Miranda, and I'm sure Shelley already knows it all." Lizzie sat back down in her chair, demonstrating that she wasn't going to move.

"Actually, I better show Shelley the way back to her house." Miranda said as she grabbed Shelley and began to walk. "Oh, and Gordo, you can have my smoothie." Miranda and Shelley made their way to the exit and disappeared outside.

"So," Gordo trailed off.

"I need to be home for dinner, so get on with it," Lizzie was very annoyed that she had to be sitting there.

He took a deep breath and began. "What you saw in there was nothing. I can see how it could be miss-interpreted, but really, nothing happened or was going to happen." Even though Gordo knew the last part was a lie, he thought it needed to be said.

"What I saw was my best friend sitting a room, about to kiss a girl, when he had obviously been spying on me. Does that sound about right?"

"No, we were only in there because I was helping her dodge Tudgeman, and we weren't about to kiss."

"Well that sure is what it looked like. Besides, even if you were going to kiss, what makes you think I would care?" She asked coldly.

"I just know that if I saw you kiss another guy, I would be pretty hurt." In fact, Gordo had seen her kiss another boy, and he had been very hurt by it, but Lizzie didn't know about that, and he figured it was a bad idea to tell her now.

"Well," Lizzie slightly hesitated. "I wouldn't be. I don't really care what or who you do. Hell, you could have been screwing her for all I care. I really have to go, bye." She stood up and left as fast as she could so Gordo didn't have a chance of stopping her, or seeing the tears that had begun to stream down her face.

The truth was, Gordo couldn't have stopped her even if he'd had the chance. He was so taken aback from Lizzie's comments that he was in shock. Not only was he surprised to hear her say that she didn't care, but he had never heard her talk like that to anyone. He felt like a knife had been stabbed right through his heart. His first instinct was to just cry because of the hurt that he felt, but then he realized how much Lizzie had really helped him. Not even an hour ago he had been trying to decide between Lizzie and Shelley, but Lizzie had just made the decision for him. He felt stupid for even falling for someone that really cared so little about him. Even though he'd known Shelley for less then twenty for hours, he could tell she was the kind of person who would never do that. He sat and thought for a while as he finished off Miranda's smoothie. He decided that he wouldn't tell anyone how he felt just yet. He decided to wait until he got to know Shelley a little better before pouring his heart out to her. He knew his feelings wouldn't change, but he wanted to see if she felt something as well. He looked down and noticed that his cup was empty, so he stood up and began the short walk home.

***Meanwhile***

As Lizzie walked down the street, she decided that she'd have to go somewhere else before going home. She couldn't let her mom catch her crying like this. She headed for the park. As she walked on the sidewalk, she thought about all of the feelings inside of her. She was angry at Shelley for looking through her purse, angry at Shelley and Gordo for eaves dropping, hurt that Gordo would be with Shelley behind her back, and angry at herself for reacting like a child. Gordo had given her the perfect chance to express her true feelings, but she had thrown that away with one stupid comment. 'How could I have told him I don't care,' she thought. 'Of course I care.' She found a bench and sat down. She covered her face with her hands as she began to sob. She was so hurt and so angry at the same time. There were no words to describe how she felt. On top of all these horrible feelings she felt Lizzie couldn't help but think about the fact that Shelley knew her secret. Of all the people in the world to know, Shelley had to be the one to find that stupid picture she'd drawn on a week before. 'I knew I should have taken it out of there,' she said to herself. 'Stupid Lizzie, if only you could be as smart as Gordo sometimes!' Again her thoughts had trailed back to the boy, and she continued to sob until she noticed the street lights beginning to turn on. She stood up and reluctantly began her trek home.

~~ Tell me what you think! ~~


End file.
